Build a Water Table for Kids

Building an outdoor water table for kids is a relatively simple project and will provide them with hours and hours of amusement.

By the MOTHER EARTH NEWS editors

| August/September 1994

Properly built, a water table for kids is big enough to let your youngster splash around in the shallows but small enough that they can't wad into it.

PHOTO: FOTOLIA/GYSO4KA

If you've visited a kindergarten recently, you may have seen children playing in an indoor water table: a sturdy
work table with a low rim around the perimeter to hold a
very shallow pool of water. And they love it, but at an indoor table they must exercise enough self-discipline to create quiet little water worlds and not a big wet mess; either that, or they need an adult there the whole time making sure things don't get out of hand.

An outdoor table allows for more rambunctious play, not to mention a less complicated design; indoor tables are typically built kid-waist high and require a rigid frame and legs. The water can also be a
little deeper. Accordingly, the plans that follow are for an outdoor water table for kids. You'll
save time, trouble and weight (filled with sand or gravel,
rocks, and water, it will be heavy enough.)

Size and Depth

Build it on flat
ground and block it to be perfectly level so the kids can
play in it much as they play in the sandbox. The table should be long enough to
present an independent play area at each end but be narrow
enough that children ranged along opposing sides can reach
in and play together. Again, observe a pair of kids playing
dolls or cars on the rug and measure the distance from the
belt of one to the other. I've found that a 2' x 4' table
is fine for small kids, 2 1/2 x 6' good for older ones. Do
not be tempted to make it so big the children are tempted
to climb in, splash around, and bust it up.

If small kids have (even forbidden) access to a hose, they
will eventually fill the water table to brimming. And
despite being told not to, they will eventually go wading
in it. A small child could conceivably slip, fall ...and a
toddler can drown in even an inch of water. Unless you will
have an adult in constant attendance, don't give them the
chance to come to grief. If your youngest is under age 3,
build a table with a low rim or drill drain holes all
around so water can never get more than an inch deep. If
the youngest is over age 6, water can be up to 4" deep.
However, the table isn't meant to be a pool, but a
miniworld with shallow, play oceans and rivers. I think that
a box with 3" sides containing an inch or so of gravel and
drain-hole drilled to give a maximum standing-water depth
of 2" is best. The kids can have fun and you needn't worry.
You can block up one end a couple of inches to give a
shallow and deep end and enough slope to make little rivers
through the gravel or sand when the hose is left on in a
trickle. Kids can use wood blocks to dam the stream in
3"-deep pools to give a most satisfying, little waterfall. (We also provide a supply of little disposable bathroom-size paper cups for pouring. Otherwise, a succession of cooking measures, coffee mugs, and dangerous glass drinking vessels found their way out to the table.)

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Properly built, a water table for kids is big enough to let your youngster splash around in the shallows but small enough that they can't wad into it. PHOTO: FOTOLIA/GYSO4KA

Diagrams show parts, dimensions, and assembly method of water table. SCOTT MACNEILL

Diagram shows the necessary cuts to make in a sheet of plywood for the water table. SCOTT MACNEILL

Lay the bottom panel on the ground and cut two lengths of
2" x 3" to be as long as it is. These will be the sides of
the frame.

3. Fasten side-frame boards to the plywood bottom panel.

With smooth, finished face of the bottom ply facing up, set
a 2" x 3" frame side board under each long edge, the 2" x
3"s "on edge"—with wider 3" surface facing out. Be
sure outer edges of frame boards are even with edges of the
bottom sheet. Fasten with screws 6" from end and placed
every 6' ; screws will be through ply and down into the 2"
x 3"s.

4. Cut frame ends and cross braces to fit bottom panel.
Turn bottom panel over. Measure and cut 2" x 3"s to fit
between ends of the frame boards just screwed on. Measure
and cut 5 other lengths of 2 x 3 to form a ladder shape of
cross braces between frame sides.

5. Tack fasten ends and braces. Arrange frame ends and
cross braces in a ladder shape on underside of bottom
panel. Cement and tack in place with long, easily removed
nails through 2" x 3"s and into ply.

6. Reinforce underside of corners. Cut four triangular
braces from scrap ply and place one at each corner. Use
cement and short finish nails to fasten.

7. Carefully turn ply over again. Set screws through bottom
panel and down to the frame members, screws about every 6".
Now the bottom is framed.

8. Next, "box in" framed bottom with plywood side and end
panels. Lay out the 5' 4" plywood side panels along the
framed bottom, lower edge of side panels even with bottom
edge of frame.

9. Lay out the plywood end panels. Arrange and (as needed)
trim ends of sides and ends so all corners meet in a butt
joint (end of one meets side edge of the other). Fasten
sides and ends to frame with screws 6" apart, 1/2" up from
lower edge. Remove tack nails from underside.

10. Cut and install corner cleats to strengthen up side of
corners. Trim about a foot of scrap 2" x 3" to be a 1/2"
square. Measuring in the box, cut four approx. 3"
cleats—one to fit into each corner, upper end even
with the rim. Drill staggered holes 3" in from corners and
fasten cleats with glue and 1" screws through ply into
cleats.

11. Caulk and water seal the box. Directions on waterproofing is explained below.

12. Install triangular top corner braces: Apply glue to
bottom of remaining four plywood triangles and tack one at
each corner of box, edges even with outside of box. Use
small nails through triangle and into edges of plywood side
and side panels and a long nail down into corner cleat.
Countersink nails well into ply. Sand edges. Caulk all
joints inside and out and water seal the plywood.

Waterproofing Methods

The table needn't be completely waterproof, but it makes
for a better job, dryer kids, and less water waste if it
is. Here are three options:

A good bead of sticky, clear acrylic caulk along insides of
all seams will seal a well-fastened water table if wood
surfaces to be caulked are dry and dust free. But, under
repeated soakings, the caulk will work loose and plywood
will deteriorate unless covered with a waterproof finish.
Better is to caulk and then paint with clear outdoor
varnish or several applications of sky blue, glossy,
latex-enamel paint intended for house trim.

Better yet is the old way of sealing canoes and covering
aircraft. Get ahold of enough lightweight canvas, blue
denim, or any open weave, hard-finished fabric to cover the
sides and bottom, plus a gallon or two of marine (canoe)
paint or airplane dope. Sky blue is the best color. Cut
fabric into panels to fit bottom and all sides with a good
inch of overlap at seams and over the top of side and end
panels. Along bound edges of the fabric, snip off enough 2"
wide fabric tape to place over seams. Double-over cut edges
and staple edges of fabric panels to the wood, snugging well
and stapling into corners and pulling fabric over flat
areas as tight as you can. Then apply successive coats of
paint (under the second coat put painting tape over seams)
till you have a smooth surface. Let the children help paint
too; they love it, and modern latex enamels wash off little
hands and out of clothes so long as you don't let them dry
hard.

You can do a more modern job by replacing the fabric with
more costly, but vastly stronger, fiberglass mat and
replacing canoe paint with two-part epoxy
resin—obtainable with directions at any
boating-supply house. The resin comes in two parts; mixed
together and with color added, it is applied over the
fiberglass just as paint goes over cloth and will make a
glossy minipool. (DO NOT let small kids help apply the
resin, which is caustic and emits vinegary fumes till
cured.)

Land Medium

Kids need something to make land out of. Sod looks good for
a few minutes but quickly becomes sodden and gets the water
muddy. Crushed rock is arguably the best, as its corners
and many angular faces help it stay put better in water
than sand or gravel. The heavier pebbles in gravel make
more stable land areas under water than sand. Kids will
bring in rocks, clumps of sod, grass and leaves, and who
knows what all else, and the table can look a proper mess
at the end of a day's play. It is easy to move gravel
around under water with the hose to wash out peanut butter
sandwich leavings, while fine sand grains will compact and
hold trash.

Unless you want to enforce school-type discipline, the kids
will splash and throw water. Crushed rock or gravel will
stay put on the bottom while sand will splash out with the
water, to get into silky young hair and small eyes.

Crushed rock and washed gravel are available from any
aggregate-supply outlet. You won't want a dump truck full
and you can buy it in bags, or you can get crushed marble
and other decorative rock at most large nurseries. For a
small table, you might find it easiest to buy
fish-tank-bottom gravel from the pet store. The cheapest is
natural stone, though the kids love to mix up a variety of
virulent neon colors that hurt my eyes. Adding a new bag of
a fresh color once in a while will enliven a slow
afternoon.

Moving Water

Remember when you were a kid, how fascinating it was to
play in a little stream? You could dam it up, float sticks
down it, and imagine you were Tom Sawyer rafting the
Mississippi. Block up one end of the water table an inch or
two, with shorter supports every few inches downhill, hold
the end of the garden hose in one corner with a brick, and
leave the water on in a small flow. Let the overflow run
over at the other end or drill drain holes to control water
level. Experiment so water flow is strong enough to flow
through but not so strong it erodes "land" areas. If it is
the dry season, you can conserve water by running the
overflow to your garden or permanent plantings.

Draining Water

You can attach elaborate faucets and drain cocks, but they
just add weight. And you'll want to be able to move the
table each day, lest the lawn under it become a swamp. A 1
1/2" hole in the bottom with a sink drain plug will ease
emptying. A pair of 2" x 3"s with ends cut in an up angle
and screwed to the bottom of the table, with a rope loop at
one end, will make one-parent moving easier.

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